We show how a simple normal approximation to Erlang's delay formula can be used to analyze capacity and staffing problems in service systems that can be modeled as M/M/s queues.
This study investigates factors influencing causal attributions in managerial decision making. Three categories of factors are identified: (i) prior beliefs (ii) background frequencies, and (iii) covariation cues. The impact of factors in each of the above categories on causal attribution are studied in a marketing decision making context. Subjects demonstrated a bias toward assigning causality to variables that occurred infrequently or were controllable. Also, subjects were particularly influenced by the joint-occurrences of cause and effect variables.
To improve the efficiency of product distribution for a centralized bakery, I first performed each person's tasks and discovered that constructing optimal minimum-distance routes would not significantly reduce costs but replacing the physical validation of new routes with a manual mathematical computation or simulation would. The trick was getting management to trust the simulation enough to use it.
The paper develops a simple model of corporate ownership structure in which costs and benefits of ownership concentration are analyzed. The model compares the liquidity benefits obtained through dispersed corporate ownership with the benefits from efficient management control achieved by sonic degree of ownership concentration. The paper reexamines the free-rider problem in corporate control in the presence of liquidity trading, derives predictions for the trade and pricing of blocks, and provides criteria for the optimal choice of ownership structure.
The effects of tax reform on corporate financial decisions help determine whether reform will increase capital formation and simplify the tax system. This paper describes the effects of fundamental tax reform on corporate tax planning and summarizes economists' knowledge of the magnitude of these effects. We analyze both income tax reform, consisting of integrating the corporate and personal income taxes, and moving to a broad-based consumption tax. As prototypes of reform, we use the U.S.
Since technological change influences the rate at which human capital obsolesces and also increases the uncertainty associated with human capital investments, training may increase or decrease at higher rates of technological change. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth, we find that production workers in manufacturing industries with higher rates of technological change are more likely to receive formal company training.
In this article, we argue that the time has come to begin to integrate the Coasian view of the firm--which is concerned with the interactions between ownermanagers--and the Bede and Means perspective--which emphasizes the separation of ownership and control in most corporations.
In The Boundaryless Organization, a world-class team of management experts showed how leading companies were becoming more flexible, innovative, and competitive by breaking the barriers that limit the free flow of resources and information. Now, The Boundaryless Organization Field Guide gives executives, managers, and HR professionals the guidance and resources they need to make their own organizations boundaryless. This hands-on kit includes materials based on the acclaimed WorkOut process initiated at General Electric.